ESPE Abstracts

Background: The recent articles showed a kind of associations of the serum vitamin D levels and chronic diseases, for example, autoimmune diseases, vascular disorders, as well as malignancies. Also vitamin D deficiency impacts normal growth and maximal bone mineral accretion in puberty. Of pediatric population in Korea, the prevalence of cases of vitamin D deficiency and precocious puberty were continuously increasing nowadays.

Objective and hypotheses: We investigated whether there is the relationship of vitamin D level and precocious puberty or not, in accordance to increasing cases in Korea.

Method: In this cross-sectional study, we enrolled total 135 girls composed of 84 Korean girls with central precocious puberty and 51 control girls. The serum 25-hydroxyvitaminD (25OHD) levels of all subjects were measured by radioimmunoassay. The anthropometric data and bone age were recorded. The definitions of the vitamin D status according to their 25OHD serum levels were as follows: deficient for patients with levels <20 ng/ml, insufficient for levels of at least 20 but < 30 ng/ml, and normal for levels ≧30 ng/ml. The data of precocious puberty group and control group were compared using the Student t-test, and χ² test. The odds ratio of central precocious puberty depending on vitamin D levels were investigated by binary logistic regression. Statistical significance was defined as P<0.05.

Results: Their mean ages were 7.7±1.2 year (central precocious group) and 8.96±1.8 year (control group). The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in all subjects was 62.2% (97 out of 135), that of vitamin D insufficiency was 37.8% (38 out of 135). There was a statistically significant difference in mean serum 25OHD level between the central precocious puberty group and control group (16.9±4.7 ng/ml vs 19.18 ng/ml, P<0.05). Seventy eight percent of CPP girls (66 out of 84) have revealed vitamin D deficiency, and 21.4% (18 out of 84) were vitamin D insufficient. In the control group, 60% (31/51) had vitamin D deficiency and 39% (20/51) were vitamin D insufficient. After χ² test, there was a statistically significant difference in both groups (P<0.05). Vitamin D deficient girls had a significantly higher odds ratio (OR, 2.36; 95% CI, 1.09–5.09, P=0.028).

Conclusion: This study indicated that vitamin D deficiency is more prevalent in girls with central precocious puberty than normal control girls with same ages. So, vitamin D-deficient state might influence sexual maturation and hormone metabolism. Because vitamin D-deficient effect on pubertal progression is not known, further studies about the mechanism of vitamin D deficiency on the onset of precocious puberty would be needed.